The Eighth National Congress of the CPC

The CPC held its Eighth National Congress from September 15 to 27, 1956, in Beijing. This was the first national congress after the CPC came to power. Attending the meeting were 1,026 delegates, representing 10.73 million Party members nationwide. The number of CPC members by that time was nearly nine times that in 1945 when the Seventh National Congress was held.

More than 50 delegations of foreign communist, workers' and people's parties, representatives of non-communist democratic parties in China, and prestigious democrats without party affiliation attended the congress on invitation.

Mao Zedong made an opening speech, Liu Shaoqi gave a political report, Deng Xiaoping delivered a report on the revision of the Party's Constitution, and Zhou Enlai reported on proposals concerning the Second Five-year Plan.

The basic task of this congress was to summarize all the experience gained since the Seventh National Congress, and unite the whole Party and all other forces at home and abroad to build a great socialist China.

The congress had the following goals and guidelines: (1) identifying changes in the main problems facing China, and deciding to shift the focus of the Party and the state to socialist development; (2) ensuring an economic strategy of opposing both undue caution and excessive haste, that is, seeking steady progress while ensuring all-round balance in economic development; (3) placing importance on ideological and cultural education; and (4) strengthening the Party now that it was in power, and reiterating the Central Committee's opposition to eulogy on individuals.

At its first plenary session, the Eighth Central Committee elected a new Political Bureau and Standing Committee, and elected Mao Zedong as chairman of the Central Committee, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Chen Yun as vice chairmen, and Deng Xiaoping as general secretary. They also elected a new Central Supervisory Committee.

中國共產黨第八次全國代表大會

1956年9月15日至27日，中國共產黨第八次全國代表大會在北京舉行。這是中國共產黨在全國執政后召開的第一次全國代表大會。出席大會的正式代表1026人，代表全國1073萬黨員，黨員人數比中共七大時增加了8倍。應邀列席大會的有50多個外國共產黨、工人黨、勞動黨和人民革命黨等代表團以及國內各民主黨派和無黨派民主人士代表。毛澤東致開幕詞，劉少奇作政治報告，鄧小平作《關于修改黨的章程的報告》，周恩來作《關于發展國民經濟第二個五年計劃的建議的報告》。

這次大會的基本任務是：總結黨第七次全國代表大會以來的經驗，團結全黨、團結國內外一切可能團結的力量，為建設一個偉大的社會主義中國而奮斗。

會議主要確定了以下幾方面內容：第一，提出了國內主要矛盾的新結論，作出了黨和國家的工作重點必須轉移到社會主義建設上來的重大戰略決策；第二，堅持了既反保守又反冒進，即在綜合平衡中穩步前進的經濟建設方針；第三，強調加強思想文化建設的重要性；第四，著重提出了執政黨的建設問題，重申了中共中央反對個人突出、反對對個人歌功頌德的方針。

隨后召開的中共八屆一中全會選舉了中央政治局及其常務委員會，選舉毛澤東為中央委員會主席，劉少奇、周恩來、朱德、陳云為副主席，鄧小平為總書記；選舉了中央監察委員會。

中共八大總結了中國共產黨探索中國走社會主義建設道路的初步成果，制定了正確的路線方針，對于此后的社會主義建設具有久遠的歷史意義。